case the book is published in Great Britain. In the case of books in a foreign language it would compel the manufacture there. I won't go into a detail of those points, but I think the facts will bear me out in saying that the rights granted in other countries are limited; and when that is the state of the case in foreign countries, I do not see how we can expect to pass an ideal measure, which goes beyond the laws of foreign countries where copyright has been recognized for many years. We want to get it recognized, but it seems to me doubtful whether we can get it recognized by undertaking to do so at one bound. If we find our former experience is likely to be repeated, and the bill quietly killed before coming up for discussion, I think we ought to know what we are prepared to do then, and whether we would then accept a printing clause. If that cannot be settled in this meeting, it might be a very feasible and fair mode to send out a question to the members of the League, most of whom live in other parts of the country, and get once for all the real opinion of the League. It seems

to me that that opinion is entitled to a hearing and consideration. So I should like to move an amendment to Mr. Warner's motion: That the Council send out an inquiry to all the members of the League, as to how far they are willing to go, and whether they think it is best to insert a printing clause in the bill, or whether we shall only go to the length of letting it be understood that we are willing to compromise on that if some one else offers it."

To which Mr. Warner replied: "In regard to the amendment. This is now the 7th of November, aud it would be impossible to get responses from the members of the League in time for action early in the session; and it is perfectly clear that if this bill stands any chance, it must be moved immediately on the opening of the session. Mr. Hawley said: 'I must know about it when the Senate comes together.' I think the majority of the League ought to decide the matter, and their decision ought to have weight with the Executive Committee. I would only make a remark, not upon the amendment, but upon something else that Mr. Lathrop said. It seems to me a simple waste of time for us to insert any sort of compromise in the bill, not because we will not accept the best bill we can get through Congress or any reasonable compromise that is offered, but because we do not know what the opposition will be. If we were to insert a printing clause, the people who do not want copyright would have some other objection. If we sat down here and attempted to figure out all the objections that might be offered, there would still be other objections. The opposition goes to the point of excluding importation of foreign books. It seems to me that we are playing into their hands by a little concession here and a little concession there. We should lay the bill down on the table and say: 'That, gentlemen, is what we want.' They can kill the bill by various subterfuges, but they would kill it if it had the printing clause in. If any public interest can be aroused to support that bill, then members will offer amendments to it; and if the judgment of the Senate is that there should be a printing clause, the League will accept the best it can get. It seems to me that we are going out of our province by attempting to meet a condition of things that is absolutely unknown to us. The men opposing it do not want any sort of limitation."

Johnson, R. W. and J. B. Gilder, besides Messrs. Warner and Lathrop, participated, the amendment

of the latter was lost.

The President put the question as to whether it was the policy of the League to push the Hawley bill, and the motion to press that bill was carried unanimously, as was also the following resolution presented by Colonel Knox:

"Resolved, That the thanks of the American Copyright League are hereby tendered to the Hon. Joseph R. Hawley and the Hon. William Dorsheimer for their efforts before the Congress of the United States in behalf of international copyright."

In January, 1886, a committee of the League, a number of representative publishers, and others interested in the subject, went to Washington to submit their arguments, etc., relating to the Hawley and Chace bills, to the Committee on Patents. The statements and remarks of Dr. Howard

Crosby, Senator Hawley, A. G. Sedgwick, Henry Holt, G. W. Green, S. L. Clemens, George Ticknor Curtis, W. H. Browne, Horace E. Scudder,

James Lowndes, Gardiner G. Hubbard, James Russell Lowell, James Welch of the Typographcal Union of Philadelphia, Dana Estes, R. R. Bowker, Henry C. Lea, Roger Sherman, Josiah R. Sypher of Philadelphia, Henry Carey Baird, A. R. Spofford, and George Haven Putnam were reprinted in full in a pamphlet issued by the Government.

SECOND ANNUAL MEETING.

The second annual meeting of the Copyright League was held on the afternoon of December 2, 1886, at the Presbyterian church parlors, corner of Fourth Avenue and Twenty-second Street, New York City. Mr. Sedgwick, as Chairman of the Executive Committee, called the meeting to order, and on motion of Col. Knox was. made permanent chairman.

He re

Mr. Green, as Secretary, stated what had been accomplished by the League during the past year in the matter of stirring public opinion through the newspaper press and by the publication of pamphlets on the question. He referred to the visit which Mark Twain, R. U. Johnson, and himself made to the President last fall, and the result of that and previous calls upon him. ferred also to the President's interest and attention to the matter, evidenced by his asking for a short summary of the facts and the laws which were subsequently furnished him in a sort of brief. The Secretary's report also touched upon the hearing at Washington, the manner in which the topic was presented, and the attention of the Senator and the representatives of the press, called attention to the fact that the opposition to the Hawley bill by the typographers, who were represented by Mr. Welch, who claimed to speak

and

the sort which would listen to argument, reason, and common-sense, as was shown by Mr. Welch's statement to the Secretary, that a fair Copyright bill, which provided for manufacture in this country, would receive the support of his people. After some discussion relating mainly to the question of ways and means, plans were then discussed for the extension and strengthening of the League, and the Executive Committee were, on motion of R. U. Johnson, instructed to strive to secure a full discussion of the subject in the coming Congress.

Before adjourning, the following were elected to act as Council for the League: Hon. John Bigelow, Professor H. H. Boyesen, Robert Collyer, D.D., Howard Crosby, D.D., R. W. Gilder, Lawrence Hutton, Brander Matthews, Rt. Rev. H. C. Potter, D.D., Arthur G. Sedgwick, Edmund Clarence Stedman, Charles Dudley Warner, S. L. Clemens, Poultney Bigelow, R. U. Johnson, E. P. Roe, Charles Barnard, Titus M. Coan, Col. Thomas W. Knox, Hamilton W. Mabie, Professor E. Munroe Smith, Joseph B. Gilder, Bayard Tuckerman, Professor E. L. Youmans, Morgan Dix, D.D., Henry M. Alden, W. H. Bishop, H. C. Bunner, Bronson Howard, George W. Folsom, and George Walton Green.

In December, 1886, the League issued a circular in which were set forth the merits of the Hawley and Chace bills.

THIRD ANNUAL MEETING.

On November 3, 1887, the Council of the American Copyright League met at the Fourth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City. and was called to order at 3 o'clock, P.M., Mr. A. G. Sedgwick in the chair. After reading the reports of the Secretary and Treasurer, Dr. Crosby offered the following resolution, which was adopted:

"That having accepted and adopted the report of the Executive Committee for the past year, we advise the continuance of the same policy for the future, the upholding of the copyright principle pure and simple, leaving all details of operation as regards legislation with the Council that shall be elected, and suggest that the Council confer these powers upon its Executive Committee."

A motion was offered and adopted that the foregoing resolution of Dr. Crosby be presented to the League.

At 4 o'clock the Annual Meeting of the League was called to order, Mr. A. G. Sedgwick in the chair. The Secretary presented a report, which, upon motion, was adopted. The following members were then elected to act as Council for the League for the ensuing year: Dr. Howard Crosby, A. G. Sedgwick, Geo. Walton Green, R. U. Johnson, E. P. Roe, James Russell Lowell, Chas. Dudley Warner, Brander Matthews, E. C. Stedman, Rev. Robert Collyer, Laurence Hutton, Samuel L. Clemens, R. W. Gilder, Bronson Howard, Prof. H. H. Boyesen, Edward Eggles

ton, William H. Bishop, Geo. W. Curtis, W. D. Howells, Frank R. Stockton, Geo. W. Cable, H. C. Bunner, H. M. Alden, Col. Thomas W. Knox, Dr. Titus M. Coan and Prof. Munroe Smith. Mr. Johnson offered the following resolution for adoption :

"The American Copyright League, assembled for the third time in annual convention, declares its unaltered conviction that the bill for the establishment of international copyright, introduced in the Senate in 1885, on behalf of the League, by Senator Hawley, of Connecticut, and known as the Hawley Bill (herewith appended) is not only a measure of long-deferred justice and of national

expediency, but also the most direct and simple means of accomplishing the desired reform. Modelled as it is upon reciprocal legislation concerning trade-marks, the negotiation of a convention with foreign countries under its provisions would be a mere formality of affixing signatures.

"And the League earnestly appeals to Senators and Representatives to place the rights of authors without delay upon the same plane as the analogous right of inventors, by admitting foreign authors to the full protection of the law."

In the debate upon Mr. Johnson's resolution, which was participated in by Messrs. Estes, Boyesen, Johnson, Roe, Stedman, Pearsall-Smith, and Green, the latter offered as a substitute for Mr. Johnson's resolution the following:

"Resolved, That, having accepted and adopted the report of the Executive Committee for the past year, and strongly advising the continuance of the same policy for the future and the upholding of the copyright principle pure and simple, we urge our Council and Executive Committ.e to use every effort to secure some acceptable and equitable copyright bill, vesting in such Council and Committee full discretion to deal with such limitations upon copyright as may be proposed, and the acceptance of which may by them be deemed advisable."

Mr. Stedman moved to insert, as an amendment, after the words "copyright pure and simple," the words "as it was expressed in the Hawley Bill."

Mr. Johnson withdrew his resolution and seconded the adoption of that presented by Mr.

Green.

The resolution of Mr. Green as amended was adopted, reading as follows:

"Resolved, That, having accepted and adopted the Report of the Executive Committee for the past year, and strongly advising the continuance of the same policy for the future, and the upholding of the copyright principle pure and simple as it was expressed in the Hawley Bill, we urge our Council and Executive Committee to use every effort to secure some acceptable and equitable copyright bill, vesting in such Council and Committee full discretion to deal with such limitations upon copyright as may be proposed, and the acceptance of which may by them be deemed advisable."

abroad, and a fair chance to make authorship in America a 'self-supporting profession, instead of a by-calling at the end of a day's toil in other fields. 4. In justice to foreign authors, who are entitled to receive from ́ Americans who read and benefit by their books the same fair payment an American would expect to make on any other article, as clothes or pictures, which he buys from foreign producers.

5. In order to widen the circulation of the best new literature, American and international, by the lessening of price which would ensue, in the case of original American books, from distributing the first cost among the greater number of copies for which sale would be secured among American readers if they were not diverted by the cheap reprints of poor English novels; and in the case of books of international importance, whether from American, English, or continental writers, by giving a basis of law to business arrangements for sharing the expense of production among the several nations interested.

We have been told that the American people will not grant this justice lest it might prevent cheap books." We believe, on the contrary, that the American people are willing to pay for what they get, and will agree that "there is one thing better than a cheap book, and that is a book honestly come by." But the example of France and Germany, countries whose literature is fully protected by international copyright, and whose books are the cheapest in the world, shows that the price of books depends not upon the copyright but upon the nature of the public demand. American readers want cheap books adapted to their special requirements. This demand will be met. Authors and publishers will profit by wider sales, though at smaller prices for the individual book. Any increase of price because of international copyright will be almost exclusively in the cheapest issues of foreign fiction, un-American and in many cases undesirable for American readers, while no copyright law can in any degree affect the prices of past or future editions of books already published. Translations of Zola's future novels may cost 50 cents instead of 25 cents, but as an offset for this misfortune, more American fiction will be sold, and cheap reprints of ephemeral English fiction will make way for decently printed editions, at a fair price, of American and the better class of new English novels. We submit also that the term monopoly," as used against copyright, is wrongly used. A monopoly, in the current sense of the word, is the setting apart by law of certain natural products or facilities, or of certain property of the commonwealth, which, in the absence of such a law, would be open to all. This does not apply to an author's control of his productions any more than to a shoemaker's control of the pair of shoes

which he makes. The man who earns his living by his brain asks only the same fair play that is given to the man who earns his living by his hands. A domestic copyright to the writer of a history of the United States or an international copyright to the writer of a history of England, debars no other author from writing a history of either country; it does not grant a monopoly." The author asks only payment for the service he has done, and not for any restriction of the work of others; in fact, one reason for paying him is that it encourages others to write.

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Every American citizen has a practical interest in this reform. We desire to impress upon Congress the fact that the public opinion of intelligent readers is in its favor. We ask each reader to do his part, either by joining the League, which welcomes readers as well as writers of books, or by signifying to its Secretary his willingness to sign the memorial for international copyright, or still better by writing at once to his Senators and Representative in Congress urging them to vote for such a measure. The League appeals to the honor, the patriotism, and the business common-sense of American readers in behalf of international copyright, and it believes that such an appeal will not be heard in vain by the American people.

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL, President.
E. C. STEDMAN, Vice-President,
EDWARD EGGLESTON, Chairman,
G. W. GREEN, Secretary,

(II Pine St., New York),
R. U. JOHNSON, Treasurer,
THOS. W. KNOX,

R. R. BOWKER,

Executive Committee.

PRESIDENT CLEVELAND ON INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT.

From President Cleveland's Message, Dec. 6, 1886. THE drift of sentiment in civilized communities toward full recognition of the rights of property in the creations of the human intellect has brought about the adoption, by many important nations, of an International Copyright Convention, which was signed at Berne on the 18th of September, 1885.

Inasmuch as the Constitution gives to Congress the power to promote the progress of science and useful arts by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries," this Government did not feel warranted in becoming a signatory pending the action of Congress upon measures of international copyright now before it, but the right of adhesion to the Berne Convention hereafter has been reserved. I trust the subject will receive at your hands the attention it deserves, and that the just claims of authors, so urgently pressed, will be duly heeded.